Paul E Wischmeyer, Helen Tang, Yi Ren, Lauren Bohannon, Danting Jiang, Matthew Bergens, Zeni E Ramirez, Tessa M Andermann, Julia A Messina, Julia A Sung, David Jensen, Sin-Ho Jung, Alexandra Artica, Anne Britt, Amy Bush, Ernaya Johnson, Meagan V Lew, Hilary Winthrop, Claudia Pamanes, Alessandro Racioppi, Aaron T Zhao, Zihan Wan, Neeraj K Surana, Anthony D Sung
BACKGROUND & AIMS: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose unprecedented challenges to worldwide health. While vaccines are effective, additional strategies to mitigate the spread/severity of COVID-19 continue to be needed. Emerging evidence suggests susceptibility to respiratory tract infections in healthy subjects can be reduced by probiotic interventions; thus, probiotics may be a low-risk, low-cost, and easily implementable modality to reduce risk of COVID-19. METHODS: In this initial study, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial across the United States testing probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) as postexposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 in 182 participants who had household exposure to someone with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosed within ≤7 days...
January 2024: Clinical Nutrition